September 1, 2014

Ebrahim E. I. Moosa
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
University of Notre Dame
100 Hesburgh Center for International Studies,
Notre Dame, Indiana, USA 46556-5677
emoosa1@nd.edu
www.ebrahimmoosa.com
Education

Degrees and Diplomas

1995 Ph.D, University of Cape Town

Dissertation Title:

The Legal Philosophy of al-Ghazali:

Law, Language and Theology in al-Mustasfa

1989 M.A. University of Cape Town

Thesis Title:
The Application of Muslim Personal and Family Law in
South Africa: Law, Ideology and Socio-Political
Implications.

1983 Post-graduate diploma (Journalism)

The City University
London, United Kingdom

1982 B.A. (Pass)

Kanpur University
Kanpur, India

1981 Alimiyya Degree

Darul Ulum Nadwatul Ulama
Lucknow, India

Professional History

Fall 2014 Professor of Islamic Studies

University of Notre Dame
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies
& Department of History

Co-director, Contending Modernities

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Spring 2011-Spring 2014 Professor of Religion & Islamic Studies
Department of Religion,
Duke University
(Secondary Appointments, Duke Law School, April
2008, Dept of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies
(AMES), September 2002)

Summer 2011 Senior Fellow, Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke

University

Spring 2005-2011 Associate Professor of Islamic Studies (tenured)

Department of Religion
Duke University

Fall 2005-Spring 2009 Associate Director (Research)

Duke Islamic Studies Center (DISC)

Fall 2001-Spring 2005 Associate Research Professor

Department of Religion
Duke University

Spring 2004- 2005 Director & Founder

Center for the Study of Muslim Networks
Duke University (renamed DISC)(co-director Fall
2001-Spring 2004)

Fall 1998-Spring 2001 Visiting Associate Professor

Department of Religious Studies
Stanford University (Affiliate fellow at the Institute for
International Studies at Stanford University)

1998-2001 (resigned) Associate Professor (tenured)

Dept. of Religious Studies
University of Cape Town, South Africa

1996-1999 Director, founder

Centre for Contemporary Islam
University of Cape Town

1997 (fall quarter) Visiting Associate Professor,

Department of Religious Studies,
Stanford University

1995-1998 Senior Lecturer

Department of Religious Studies,
University of Cape Town

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1992-1995 Lecturer
Dept of Religious Studies
University of Cape Town

1989-1992 Junior lecturer

Dept of Religious Studies,
University of Cape Town

Major Research Interests

Historical Studies:

law, moral philosophy, juristic theology medieval studies, with special reference to
al-Ghazali; Quranic exegesis and hermeneutics

Muslim Intellectual Traditions of South Asia:

Madrasas of India and Pakistan; intellectual trends in Deoband school

Muslim Ethics

medical ethics and bioethics, Muslim family law, Islam and constitutional law;
modern Islamic law

Critical Thought:

law and identity; religion and modernity, with special attention to human rights and
pluralism

Minor Research Interests

history of religions; sociology of knowledge; philosophy of religion

Publications

Monographs

Published

Books

Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North
Carolina Press, 2005): 349 (Winner of the 2006 American Academy of Religions
Award for the Best First Book in the History of Religions. Also received the Choice
Outstanding Academic Title Award for 2005. Choice is a publication of a division of

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the American Library Association. Ziauddin Sardar, a columnist at the New
Statesman chose it as his two best books for 2005, see:
http://www.newstatesman.com/200511280034 )

Edited Volumes

Jeffrey T. Kenney & Ebrahim Moosa, Islam in the Modern World, (London & New
York,Routledge, 2013):459

Shamil Jeppie, Ebrahim Moosa & Richard Roberts. Muslim Family Law in Sub-
Saharan Africa: Colonial Legacies and Post-Colonial Challenges. (Amsterdam
University Press, Spring, 2010): 388.

Fazlur Rahman (posthumous essays), Revival and Reform: A Study of Islamic

Fundamentalism (Oxford: Oneworld, 1999), edited by Ebrahim Moosa, with
introduction and postscript by editor. Introduction, 1-29; Postscript 204-206.

In Press

Monograph
What is a Madrasa? University of North Carolina Press academic/trade book
publication date Spring 2015.

Work under Preparation

Books

Between Right and Wrong: Debating Muslim Ethics (contracted to Wiley Blackwell).

Muslim Self Revived: Text, Tradition & Technology

Articles
Published

Muslim Political Theology: Defamation, Apostasy, and Anathema, in Profane:

Sacrilegious Expression in a Multicultural Age. Eds. Christopher S. Grenda, Chris
Beneke, David Nash (Oakland, Calif & London: University of California Press, 2014),
169-188.

Sunni Orthodoxy Critical Muslim 10, Sects Eds. Ziauddin Sardar & Robin Yassin-
Kassab, London: Hurst, April-June 2014, 19-36.

The Law in the Alchemy of the Self: Ab mid al-Ghazl in Islamic Legal
Thought: A Compendium of Muslim Jurists eds. Oussama Arabi, David S. Powers,
Susan Spectorsky (Brill 2013).

with Aasim I. Padela, Steven W. Furber, Mohammad A. Kholwadia, Dire Necessity

And Transformation: Entry-Points For Modern Science In Islamic Bioethical
Assessment Of Porcine Products In Vaccines, in Bioethics, 2013, 1:8

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"Muslim Political Theology: Defamation, Apostasy and Anathema." In International
Symposium-Cartoons & Minarets Reflections on Muslim-Western Encounters,
Heinrich Bll Foundation, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10161/6068

Childrens Rights in Modern Islamic and International Law: Changes in Muslim

Moral Imaginaries in Children, Adults, and Shared Responsibilities: Jewish,
Christian and Muslim Perspectives, ed. Marcia Bunge (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2012), 292-308. http://hdl.handle.net/10161/5942

"Translating Neuroethics: Reflections from Muslim Ethics," Science and Engineering

Ethics no. 18:2 (2012):519-528. doi: 10.1007/s11948-012-9392-5.
http://hdl.handle.net/10161/5884

Post 9/11: America Agonizes over Islam, The Cambridge History of Religions in
America, ed. Stephen J. Stein, vol. 3, Religions in America 1945 to the present. (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 553-574. http://hdl.handle.net/10161/5989

Muslim Ethics and Biotechnology, Routledge Companion to Religion and Science

ed. James W. Haag, Gregory R. Peterson & Michael L. Spezio (Abingdon, Oxford:
Routledge, 2012): 455-465. http://hdl.handle.net/10161/5941

The Spirit of Islamic Humanism, in The Humanist Imperative in South Africa. John
W. de Gruchy. (Stellenbosch, South Africa: Sun Press and STIAS, 2011): 107-116.

Aasim I. Padela, Ahsan Arozullah & Ebrahim Moosa, Brain Death in Islamic Ethico-
Legal Deliberation: Challenges for Applied Islamic Bioethics, Bioethics, Published
online Dec 13, 2011. no-no.

_1935 1..8

Aesthetics and Transcendence in the Arab Uprisings Middle East Law and
Governance 4:3 (2011): 171180. DOI 10.1163/187633711X591512
http://hdl.handle.net/10161/5743

History and Normativity in Traditional Indian Muslim Thought: Reading Shari`a in

the Hermeneutics of Qari Muhammad Tayyab (d.1983), in Rethinking Islamic
Studies: From Orientalism to Cosmopolitanism, Carl W. Ernst & Richard C. Martin
(eds.), (University of South Carolina Press, 2010): 281-301.
http://hdl.handle.net/10161/5744

With Shamil Jeppie and Richard Roberts, Introduction: Muslim Family Law in Sub-
Saharan Africa: Colonial Legacies and Post-Colonial Challenges, in Muslim Family
Law in Sub-Saharan Africa: Colonial Legacies and Post-Colonial Challenges (eds.)
Shamil Jeppie, Ebrahim Moosa & Richard Roberts, (Amsterdam University Press,
2010): 13-60

Muslim Family Law in South Africa: Paradoxes and Ironies, in Muslim Family Law
in Sub-Saharan Africa: Colonial Legacies and Post-Colonial Challenges (eds.)
Shamil Jeppie, Ebrahim Moosa & Richard Roberts, (Amsterdam University Press,
2010): 331-354 http://hdl.handle.net/10161/5745

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Genetically Modified Foods and Muslim Ethics, in Acceptable Genes ed. Conrad G.
Brunk & Harold Coward, (Albany: SUNY Press, 2009): 135-157.
http://hdl.handle.net/10161/5746

Shariat Governance in Colonial and Post Colonial India in Islam in South Asia in
Practice ed. Barbara Metcalf (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009), 317-
325

Colonialism and Islamic Law, Muhammad Khalid Masud, Armando Salvatore &
Martin van Bruinessen (eds), Islam and Modernity. Key Issues and Debates.
(Edinburgh University Press, 2009): 158-181.

Introduction The Muslim World, A Special Issue on The Deoband Madrasa, 99:3
(July 2009): 427-434.

I modelli della tradizione: gli ulema e il concetto di normativit nellislam

contemporaneo (Modes of Tradition: The `Ulama and the Concept of Normativity in
Contemporary Islam trans. By Roberto Tottoli) in Le religioni e il mondo moderno a
cura di Giovanni Filoramo iii Islam a cura di Roberto Tottoli (Torino: Giulio Einaudi
editore s.p.a. 2009): 514-522

Social Change, in Islamic World, edited by Andrew Rippin (London: Routledge,

2008): 565-575.

with Aaron L. Mackler, Allen Verhey, Anne Carolyn Klein & Kurt Peters. Spiritual
and Religious Concepts of Nature. Altering Naure: Concepts of 'Nature' and the
'Natural' in Biotechnology Debates. Ed. Lustig, B.A., Brody, B.A., McKenny, G.P.
(Springer, 2008): 13-62

Neuropolitics and the Body in Religion and Society: An Agenda for the 21st Century
eds. Gerrie ter Haar & Yoshio Tsuruoka (Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2007): 47-59.

Transitions in the 'Progress' of Civilization: Theorizing History, Practice, and

Tradition. In Voices of Change, ed. Omid Safi. General editor, Vincent J. Cornell
Voices of Islam, 5, (Westport & London: Praeger, 2007):115-130.

The Unbearable Intimacy of Language and Thought in Islam. In How Should We

Talk About Religion? Perspectives, Contexts, Particularities, ed. James Boyd White
(Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006): 300-326.

Contrapuntal Readings in Muslim Thought: Translations and Transitions. Journal

of the American Academy of Religion, March 2006, Vol. 74. No. 1: 107-118.

Rejoinder to Paul J. Griffiths Response. Journal of the American Academy of

Religion, March 2006, Vol. 74. No. 1:122-124.

Response to Robert Segal, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, March

2006, Vol. 74, No. 1:172-174.

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The Debts and Burdens of Critical Islam in Progressive Muslims: On Justice,
Gender and Pluralism ed. Omid Safi (Oxford: Oneworld, 2003):111-127.

Interface of Science and Jurisprudence: Dissonant Gazes at the Body in Modern

Muslim Ethics, in God, Life and the Cosmos: Christian and Islamic Perspectives eds.
Ted Peters, Muzaffar Iqbal & Syed Nomanul Haq (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002): 329-
356.

The Poetics and Politics of Law after Empire: Reading Womens Rights in the
Contestations of Law, in Journal for Islamic and Near Eastern Law (JINEL) 1:1
(Fall/Winter 2001/2002): 1-46.

The Dilemma of Islamic Rights Schemes, The Journal of Law and Religion 15: 1-2
(2000-2001): 185-215.

Truth and Reconciliation as Performance: Spectres of Eucharistic Redemption, in

Looking Back, Reaching Forward: Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of South Africa ed. Charles Villa-Vicencio & Wilhelm Verwoerd (Cape
Town: Juta, 2000): 113-122.

Tensions in Legal and Religious Values in the 1996 South African Constitution, in
Beyond Rights Talk and Culture Talk: Comparative Essays on the Politics of Rights
and Culture ed. Mahmood Mamdani (Cape Town: David Philip Publishers, 2000):
121-135.

Languages of Change in Islamic Law: Redefining Death in Modernity, Islamic

Studies 38:3 (1999): 305-342; reproduced in Perspectives in Islamic Law, Justice and
Society, ed. R. S. Khare (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999): 161-197.

The Sufaha in Quran Literature: A Problem in Semiosis, Der Islam 75:2 (1998): 1-
27.

Allegory of the Rule (Hukm): Law as Simulacrum in Islam, History of Religions

38:1 (August 1998): 1-24.

Shaykh Ahmad Shakir and the Adoption of a Scientifically-Based Lunar Calendar,

Islamic Law & Society 5:1 (1998): 57-89.

Transacting the Body in the Law: Reading Fatawa on Organ Transplantation, Afrika
Zamani: Revue dHistoire Africaine/A Journal of African History Special Issue, The
Civil Status and Biographies of God in Contemporary Africa, 5-6 (1997 & 1998):
291-317.

al-Tajdid wa l-hadatha: dirasa muqarana fi mawqif Fadl al-Rahman wa Hasan

Hanafi min al-turath, in Jadal al-ana wa l-akhar: qiraat fi fikr Hasan Hanafi. In
Arabic. (Renewal and Modernity: A Comparative Study in the Approach of Fazlur
Rahman and Hasan Hanafi towards the Islamic Heritage, in The Dialectic of Self and
Other: Readings in the Thought of Hasan Hanafi) ed. Ahmad Abd al-Halim (Cairo:
Madbuli, 1997): 109-114.

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Worlds Apart: The Tabligh Jamat under Apartheid 1963-1993, Journal for
Islamic Studies 17 (1997): 28-48, reproduced in Muhammad Khalid Masud (ed.)
Travelers in Faith: Studies of the Tabligh Jamat as a Transnational Islamic
Movement for Faith Renewal (Leiden: Brill, 2000): 206-221.

Prospects of Muslim Law in South Africa: A History and Recent Developments, in

Yearbook of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law 3 (1996): 130-155. An updated and
partially modified version of this essay appeared as Shaping Muslim Law in South
Africa: Future and Prospects, in The Other Law: Non-State Ordering in South Africa,
eds. Wilfried Schrf & Daniel Nina, (Cape Town: Juta, 2001): 121-147.

Textuality in Muslim Imagination: From Authority to Metaphoricity, Acta

Academica Supplementum 1 (1995): 54-65.

Discursive Voices of Diaspora Islam in Southern Africa, Jurnal Antropologi dan

Sosiologi 21(April 1992/93): 29-60, reproduced as Islam in South Africa, in Living
Faiths in South Africa, eds. John de Gruchy & Martin Prozesky, (Cape Town, David
Philip, 1995): 129-154.

Brain Death and Organ Transplantation - An Islamic Opinion, South African

Medical Journal (SAMJ) 83: 6 (June 1993): 385-386.

The Child Belongs to the Bed: Illegitimacy and Islamic Law, in Questionable
Issue: Illegitimacy in South Africa (eds.) Sandra Burman & Eleanor Preston-Whyte
(Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1992): 171-184.

Islam, in A Southern African Guide to World Religions John W. de Gruchy &

Martin Prozesky eds. (Cape Town: David Philip, 1991): 203-237.

Muslim Conservatism in South Africa, Journal of Theology for Southern Africa

(JTSA) 69 (December 1989): 73-81.

Encyclopedia Articles

Published

with Tareen, S. Revival and Reform, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic

Political Thought (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2013) pp. 462-470.

Fazlur Rahman, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2013) p. 458.

Moosa, E. & Mian, Ali A. Islam. In: Ruth Chadwick, editor. Encyclopedia of Applied
Ethics, Second Edition, volume 2. (San Diego: Academic Press, 2012) pp. 769776.

Muslim Ethics? in Blackwell Encyclopedia of Ethics ed. William Schweiker

(Blackwell, 2004).

Arabic-Afrikaans, Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden: Brill, 2004).

8
Ethics and Social Issues in Martin, Richard, ed. Encyclopedia of Islam and the
Muslim World (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004) vol. 1: 224-231.

al-Ghazali in Martin, Richard, ed. Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World.
(New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004) vol. 1: 274-275.

Qadi in Martin, Richard, ed. Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World. (New
York: Macmillan Reference USA 2004) vol. 2:557-558.

Encyclopaedia of the Quran, Loyalty ed. Jane Dammen McAuliffe (Leiden: Brill,
2003) J-O, 237-242.

Sub-Saharan Africa: Early 20th Century to Present, in Suad Joseph ed.

Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Cultures (Leiden: Brill, 2003) vol. 1: 285-293.

Islamic Empire: Medieval in Catharine Cookson et al, Encyclopedia of Religious

Freedom (New York, Routledge, 2003): 208-211.

Sunni Religious Communities, in Gary Laderman & Luis Len eds. Religion and
American Cultures (Santa Barbara: ABC Clio, 2003) vol. 1: 146-147.

Entries on Shiism & Sunnism in Lawrence C. Becker & Charlotte B. Becker eds.
Encyclopedia of Ethics 2001, 2nd edition (New York: Routledge, 2003) vol. 3. P-W
1579-1580; 1672-1673.

Oxford Dictionary of Islam ed. John L. Esposito People Against Gangsterism and
Drugs (Pagad) 245; Muslim Youth Movement 220; Call of Islam 49 (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2003).

Sacrifice (vol. 3: 447-448); Repentance (vol. 3:427-428) in John L. Esposito ed.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1995).

Reports and Professional Publications

Inside the Madrasa: A Personal History, Boston Review, January 2007.

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali Le Nouvel Observateur: Les nouveaux penseurs de lislam,

avril/mai 2004, 41.

Muslims Ask: Does Cloning Distort Creation? Voices Across Boundaries, Winter
2003-4, 34-37.

Configuring Muslim Thought: On the Need to be Earnest about History and

Transcendence, ISIM Newsletter 12, June 2003, 30-31.

Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and North Africa- An Evolving
Relationship, Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Forecast 1st Quarter 2000, 12-17.
(Op-ed pieces published in several US newspapers such as Atlanta Journal-
Constitution, Daily News in Pakistan, The Straits Times in Malaysia and several
South African news outlets.)

9
 Reviews

Charles Hirschkind, The Ethical Soundscape: Cassette Sermons and Islamic

Counterpublics in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2012.

Ron Shaham, The Expert Witness in Islamic Courts: Medicine and Crafts
in the Service of the Law, in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient
JESHO 54 (2011) 270-309.

Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith. By Vartan Gregorian, Brookings Institution Press,

2003 in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, December, 2006, 74:4.

Islamic Reform or Designer Fundamentalism? Review Essay of Tariq Ramadans

Western Muslims and the Future of Islam (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003)
in Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Winter/Spring 2006. 139-144.

Abdolkarim Soroush, Reason, Freedom, & Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of

Abdolkarim Soroush (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000) Iranian Studies:
Bulletin of the Society for Iranian Cultural and Social Studies, 37:3 (September
2004): 547-552.

Muhammad Sa`id al-`Ashmawy. Against Islamic Extremism: The Writings of

Muhammad Sa`id al-`Ashmawy ed. Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban (Gainesville, Florida:
University Press of Florida, 1998) International Journal of Middle East Studies
(IJMES), 33: 4 (2001): 640-642.

Abdullah Saeed. Islamic Banking and Interest (Leiden: Brill, 1996), Religious Studies
Review 26 (2000): 290.

Steven Vertovec & Ceri Peach eds. Islam in Europe: The Politics of Religion and
Community (London/New York: Macmillan Press and St. Martins Press, 1997),
Politikon, 27:1 (2000): 167-170.

Brannon Wheeler. Applying the Canon in Islam (Albany, NY: State University of
New York, 1996), Journal of the American Academy of Religion 67:4 (December,
1999).

Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee. Theories of Islamic Law (Islamic Research Institute &
International Institute of Islamic Thought), Journal for Islamic Studies 18-19:
(1998/99): 132-139.

Kevin Reinhart, Before Revelation: The Boundaries of Muslim Moral Thought,

(Albany: State University of New York), Middle East Studies Association BULLETIN,
30:2 (1996).

Abdulkader Tayob. Islamic Resurgence in South Africa: The Muslim Youth Movement
(Cape Town: UCT Press, 1995), Journal for Islamic Studies 15 (1995).

10
Mahmood Mohamed Taha. The Second Message of Islam (New York: Syracuse
University Press, 1987), Journal for Islamic Studies 13 (1993).

Islam and Civil Society in South Africa: Prospects for Tolerance and Conflict
Resolution, conference report The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 11:4
(Winter 1994).

Awards and Honors

2012- Member, Contending Modernities research project, University of Notre

Dame, Science and the Human Person: Catholic, Muslim, and Secular
Perspectives. 3-year commitment

2012 Visiting Professor, June summer session, University of Paderborn,

Germany

2012 Langford Award, Duke University for excellence in scholarship and

asked to deliver distinguished Langford lecture.

2010 Fellow Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, Stellenbosch, South

Africa (two months Feb-April)

2009 American Academy of Religion Collaborative Research Grant

2009 Listed in a joint survey by Georgetown University's The Prince

Alwaleed Bin Talaal Center for Muslim-Christian
Understanding and Jordans The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies
Centre as one of 500 influential Muslims.

2006 American Academy of Religion Best First Book in the History of

Religions award for Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination (Chapel
Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2005).

2005 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award for 2005 for Ghazali and
the Poetics of Imagination. Choice is a publication division of the
American Library Association.

2005 Carnegie Scholar 2005

2005 Ford Foundation editorial grant to co-ordinate a cohort of international

scholars and workshops towards preparing a volume of articles titled:
Philanthropy for Social Justice in Muslim Societies. $150K

2004 Awarded a Ford Foundation planning grant Mapping

Knowledge, Shaping Muslim Ethics: Seeking a Paradigm Shift to
explore the challenges and questions involved in re-thinking
contemporary Muslim ethics $150K. Grant period extended to 20006.

2002-3 New Beginnings in Ethics, Duke University

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1999-2002 Awarded Ford Foundation grant to convene a pan-African research
project Muslim Family Law in Sub-Saharan Africa. Three-year
project involved 60 international scholars investigating Muslim family
law in sub-Saharan Africa. Convened thee international symposia:
2000 Daressalam, 2001 Dakar and 2002 Cape Town. $150K

1999 Erasmus Fellow, University of Notre Dame

1996 Social Science Faculty Grant for research in curriculum planning and
design, University of Cape Town

1996 Centre for Scientific Development, International Travel Grant,

Pretoria, South Africa

1996 Mellon Library Grant, University of Cape Town, South Africa

1995 Affiliate Research Fellow, Office for African Studies, American

University in Cairo (November December)

1993 Centre for Scientific Development, International Travel Grant,

Pretoria, South Africa

1990-1991 University of Chicago, South African Fellowship (Oct. 1990-Feb

1991)

1986 USIS International Visitors Program to United States (November)

Other Professional Experience

2007 Consulted for a number of international institutions on Muslim

religious education (madrasas) in the Muslim world.

Consultant to Moroccan Ministry of Islamic Affairs on curriculum

reform in the Dar al-Hadith al-Hassaniyya, the premier seminary in the
country

Delivered the prestigious Dourous Hasaniyya lecture in October

2007/Ramadan 1428, the first South African scholar to deliver this talk
and one of three US-based scholars awarded this honor and scholarly
recognition.

Consultant to Alliance of Civilization initiative sponsored by the

governments of Turkey and Spain.

Delivered 3 public lectures at the International Islamic University in

Islamabad in Pakistan in May-June

12
2004- Consultant to Philanthropy for Social Justice in Muslim Societies
project coordinated by the Third Sector Foundation of Turkey,
Istanbul, Turkey.

2003- Member of working group on governance, co-ordinated by United

Nations officials, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi and Mr Iqbal Riza, both
affiliated to the Office of the former UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi
Annan.

2001-2006 Member International Advisory Board, Rights at Home Project at

Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM), Leiden,
Netherlands. Training and support for human rights workers in
childrens and womens rights in Tanzania, Yemen and South East
Asia.

2002- Consultant to law firms on Muslim family law cases and expert
witness in trials in US courts.

1996-1998 Consultant to the office of President Mandela on Islamic affairs and

Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Environment and Water Affairs. Tasks
ranged from making input to presidential and ministerial speeches on
matters related to Islam, training civil servants and adviser on Muslim
family law, foreign policy and national security issues .

1995 Oral testimony to the Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Health on

abortion in terms of Islamic ethics in South Africa

1994-1996 Consultant to Legal Resources Centre (Cape Town) on Islamic law

Gave expert testimony to the Cape High Court in 1995 that secured a
landmark victory in Ryland vs Edros 1996, a verdict that recognized
Muslim marriages for the first time in South Africa and enabled
divorced Muslim women to claim settlement benefits

1986 -1988 National Director, Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa

Promoted Muslim liberation theology and gender discourses;
led Muslim Youth Movement delegation in Lusaka, Zambia to be
among the first internal groups to meet African National Congress
leadership in exile

1984-1986 Political writer, Cape Times (South Africa) covering anti-

apartheid extra-parliamentary and parliamentary politics
Freelance writer: Melbourne Age, (Australia), The Straits
Times (Singapore), Associated Press (AP)
news commentator for Capitol Radio (Johannesburg)

1982-1984 Staff Writer

Arabia: Islamic World Review
Middle East Economic Digest (MEED)

Administrative Experience

13
2010 Co-convener Religion & Modernity track, Department of Religion,
Duke University

2009-2010 Long-term planning Committee, Department of Religion and member

of the editorial committee that wrote and prepared the departmental
review report

2009- Member of Advisory Board, Franklin Humanities Institute

2009 member of Provosts performance review committee of Director of

Duke University Press

2008- Convener of the Islamic Studies track for the doctoral degree program
in the Duke University, Graduate Program in Religion

2008 Member of the Advisory Board of Sudanic Africa: The Journal of

Islam in Africa.

2007 Chair of Search Committee for entry-level Islamic Studies hire in

Department of Religion.

2007- Member of the MA admissions committee, Department of Religion

2007- Steering committee member, Ethics Certificate Program, The Kenan

Institute for Ethics

2005-2009 Associate Director, Duke Islamic Studies Center

2004-2005 Director Center for the Study of Muslim Networks, Duke University

2001-2004 Co-director, Center for the Study of Muslim Networks, Duke

University

1996 Member, University of Cape Town, Department of Religion

curriculum review committee

1996 Member, University of Cape Town, vice-chancellors ad-hoc advisory

committee in faculty of humanities & social science

1983-1984 Chairperson, University of Cape Town Academics Association.

Responsibilities included salary consultations and representing faculty
on Council and Senate committees, including disciplinary hearings

Service to the Profession

2012 Member, Advisory Board new and expanded edition of the Blackwell
Companion to Religious Ethics ed. William Schweiker

14
2010 Associate Editor, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
(JAAR).

2010-2012 Co-editor, Encountering Traditions Series at Stanford University Press,

co-editors Peter Ochs & Stanley Hauerwas

2007- Jury member of the best first book in the History of Religions category
awarded by the American Academy of Religion

2006- Member Advisor Advisory Committee of the Journal of Law &

Religion.

2004 Co-convener of conference sponsored by the Journal of the American

Academy of Religion titled: "Contesting Religion and Religions
Contested: The Study of Religion in a Global Context.

2003-2007 Member Advisory Committee Dialogue of Science, Ethics and

Religion of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science

2003-2007 Member of the editorial collective of Worlds and Knowledges

Otherwise, previously known as Nepantla

2002- Member of the International Bioethics Committee of the Organization

of Islamic Conference (OIC) Standing Committee on Scientific &
Technical Cooperation (COMSTECH)

2002-2006 Member of the Advisory Board for the Encyclopedia of Women in

Islamic Cultures (Leiden: Brill), general editor, Suad Joseph

2001-2010 Member Editorial Board, Journal for the American Academy of

Religion (JAAR)

2001-2006 Consultant to JAAR editor, Glenn Yocum and book editor Sheila
Davaney to internationalize the profile of JAAR. Co-convener
conference on the International Study of Religion.

2001- Member of the Advisory Board, UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near
Eastern Law (JINEL), UCLA School of Law

2001-2007 Member of the Advisory Council of the Centre for Studies in Religion
and Society (CSRS), University of Victoria, Canada. (Appointed to a
second term of three years.)

2000-2002 Member of the International Connections Committee of the American

Academy of Religion

1999-2004 Executive Editor, Journal for Islamic Studies (JIS), published by the
Centre for Contemporary Islam at the University of Cape Town

1994-1999 Member of the Editorial Board, Journal for Islamic Studies

15
1995 External examiner for the Departments of Religious Studies University
of the Western Cape, University of Cape Town and the University of
the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa) and the International
Islamic University, Malaysia

1991 Co-convener, first international conference on Approaches to the

Study of Islam in South Africa on theory and method in the study of
Islam. July 1991
Teaching

Undergraduate Courses

Americas Gods, freshmen seminar

Introduction to Islam

Islamic Mysticism

Islamic Law and Ethics

Jews, Christians and Muslims: Encounters and Conversations

Islam in the Modern World

The Making of the Islamic Tradition

Law and Gender in Modern Islam

Graduate Seminars

A Paradoxical Politics? Religion, Poverty and Citizenship: Religion in Public Life

Prisms of Religion in Modernity

Hermeneutics, History and the Making of Authority in Islam

Studies in al-Ghazali

Readings in Classical Islam

Readings in Modern Islam

Justice, Law and Commerce in Islam

Studies in Iqbal

Dissertations & Theses Advised and Directed

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Doctoral Dissertations

Currently directing 6 active doctoral students in the Department of

Religion at Duke University; co-supervising 1 graduate student. 3
students in dissertation writing stage; 1 third year doctoral student; 1
second year doctoral student; advising 4 MA students.

Successfully Completed Dissertations

2012 PhD dissertation completed, Duke University, Youshaa Patel
Muslim Distinction: Imitation and the Anxiety of Jewish, Christian,
and Other Influences.

2012 PhD dissertation completed, Duke University, SherAli Tareen,

The Limits of Tradition: Competing Logics of Authenticity in South
Asian Islam.

2007 Ph D dissertation completed, Duke University, Hina Azam,

Sexual Violence in Maliki Legal Ideology: From Discursive
Foundations to Classical Articulation.

2002 Ph D dissertation completed, Duke University, Kecia Ali,

Money, Sex, and Power: The Contractual Nature of Marriage in
Islamic Jurisprudence of the Formative Period.

Served or serving as Committee Member of Doctoral Committees

@Notre Dame, Mazen ElMakkouk.
@ Duke: Rick Colby, Stephen Sours, Brett Wilson, Attiya Ahmad
@UNC-CH: Peter Wright, Brannon Ingram
@ University of Chicago: Anthony Banout

M.A. Theses

2000 MA thesis, University of Cape Town, Tahir Fuzile Sitoto,

Custom ('Urf) as a Marginal Discourse in the Formulation of Islamic
Law: Myth or Reality? With special reference to Ibn `Abidin's
Discourse on `Urf.

1999 MA thesis, University of Cape Town, Abdul Kadir Riyadi,

Identity on the Line: A Historical-Cultural Study of the Indonesian
State-Ideology of Pancasila.

1995 MA thesis, University of Cape Town, Sa`diyya Shaikh,

Battered Women in Muslim Communities in the Western Cape:
Religious Constructions of Gender, Marriage, Sexuality and Violence.

Honors Theses

Served on several honors theses at Duke University since 2005.

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 2009 Honors thesis (partially directed-supervision interrupted by
leave) John R. Montgomery, Islamic Banking

2005 Honors Thesis, Duke University, Judd King, Islamic Politics

in Turkey and Egypt.

2001 Honors Thesis, Stanford University, Yoav Schlesinger Fumes

of Faith: Iranian Chemical Weapons Use in the Iran Iraq War.

2001 Honors Thesis, Stanford University, Kevin S. Brown, Beyond

Blasphemy.

Inter-Institutional and Inter-School Teaching

Short-term visiting lecturer at Leiden University, Netherlands, International Islamic

University, Islamabad, Pakistan; Paderborn University, Germany.

Invited Lectures, Workshop & Panel Presentations

February 2014 Retrieving the Ethical in Islamic Law: A Worthy Pursuit or a

Fools Errand? Simon Fraser University and the University of
British Columbia

March 2014 Human Personhood in Islam, University of Notre Dame

Contending Modernities, Science and the Human Person
workshop, Georgetown University, Doha, Qatar

March 2014 University of Hyderabad, School of Communications

March 2014 Contemporary Challenges to Islamic thought, Mawlana Azad

National University, Hyderabad, India

February 2013 One day workshop on Rethinking Islam, Islamic Circles,

London

March 2013 Muslim Ethics in the Public Sphere, University of Loyola,

Chicago

March 2013 Muslim Minority Leaders Colloquium, World for All

Foundation, Paris, France

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September 2013 National University of Singapore

October 2012 Paper delivered Muslim Political Theology: Defamation,

Apostasy and Anathema at conference on Politics, Political
Thought, and Political Theology in the Abrahamic Traditions,
held at the Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic
Religions, University of Wisconsin, Madison), Oct. 3-4.

October 2012 Keynote Speaker, Council on American-Islamic Relations,

Oklahoma, Oklahoma City

December 2011 The Great Debates Tradition, Sharia, Asia Society,

New York, 8 December 2011

October 2011 Muslim-Jewish Scholars Conference, jointly sponsored by the

Center for Interreligious Understanding &
Interdisciplinary Program in Law and Education
Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of
America, held in New York, 30 October 2011

October 2011 Constructing Public Life in the Madrasa-Sphere: Public Good

as Salvation, keynote address, Islamic Reform in Public Life
in Africa, University of Cape Town, October 12-14, 2011

September 2011 Keynote address, Legalism and Religion at Judaism and

Islam in America conference: The Interpretation of Law and
Scripture Hartford seminary September 19-20, 2011

July 2011 Faculty member, International Summer School, "Divine Action

and Human Response." Paderborn University, Germany,
July 23-28, 2011.

July 2011 Biotechnology and Justice, keynote address conference on

Contending Modernities: Catholic, Muslim, Secular, University
of Notre Dame, London, July 8-10, 2011.

June 2011 Faculty member, Social Science Research Council (SSRC)

Dissertation Workshop, on Religion, Peacebuilding and
Development, 5-9 June, 2011.

May 2011 Norms in the Madrasa-Sphere, keynote address at Berkeley

University, Religious Norms in the Public Square, 6-7 May,
2011.

April 2011 Between Freedom of Religion and Respect for Cultural

Values, keynote address presented at Cartoons and

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 Minarets Western Depictions of Islam and Muslim Public
Protest, conference sponsored by the Heinrich Boell
Foundation and American University in Beirut, 1-2 April 2011.

January 2011 Encounters with Traditional Muslim Discourses: Discursive

Legitimacy in Contemporary Islam, paper at Islam and
Modernity Conference, hosted by the Sudairy Foundation, al-
Ghat, Saudi Arabia, January 11-14.

April 2010 Panelist at the Graduate Center, City University of New York
Great Issues Forum: The Rise of Intellectual Reform in the
Islamic World

Sept 2009 Invited to deliver a keynote lecture on the 60th anniversary of

the Theological School at Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.

May 2009 Invited to lecture on Islam and Science at the 'Building Bridges'
seminar for Christian and Muslim scholars hosted by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams in Istanbul.

April 2008 Trends in Contemporary Islamic Philanthropy Doll Family

Lecture on Religion and Money, Center for the Study of
Religion, Princeton University

May 2008 What is Tradition? Workshop, Kings College London

presented paper on Islamic Normativity in the writing of Qari
Muhammad Tayyab of Deoband.

Dec 2006 What is Muslim Ethics Ismaili Institute, International Alumni

workshop, Houston, Texas.

Sept 2006 Inside Madrasas talk delivered to Womens Foreign Policy

Group, New York.

Aug 2006 The Muslim Body in War and Peace University of Cape
Town, Department of Religious Studies, South Africa

June 2006 Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Workshop on the Secular, 1-3

June

Participated in Paris workshop on alternative knowledge

traditions, 7-9 June.

London: Delivered talk at the Abraar and Afkaar Group

meeting on Progressive Islam. (June 10)

June 2006 Ethics and Law in Islam workshop of the Ismaili Institute
international alumni, Lisbon, Portugal, 22-24 June.
Sept 2005 Re-interpreting Islam, at Living with Islam
conference Berlin, Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation.

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July 3-27 2005 Faculty member for month-long 22nd Annual Cross
Currents Research Colloquium, Union Theological Seminary,
New York.

June 19-22, 200 Ghazali and the Poetics of Imagination presented at

workshop on Image, Matter, Body-Bodies of Texts in Spaces
of Art, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am
Main, Germany.

June 8-12 2005 Keynote speaker at Research Seminar on Science, Technology

and Ethics, Gadjah Mada University, Center for Religion &
Cross-Cultural Studies, Yogjakarta, Indonesia.

April Stanford University, Abbasi Lecture on the Body in Muslim

March 26, 2005 Plenary address to the International Association for the History
of Religions (IAHR), Neuropolitics: The Dialogics of Life and
Death, Tokyo, Japan.

Sept 30-1 Oct 2004 Obligations to Laws Empire, paper presented to workshop on
Islam and the Practices of Modernity book project
coordinated by the International Institute for the Study of Islam
in the Modern World, Leiden, Netherlands.

April 2004 Ghazali and the Construction of Heresy, working group on

Jewish and Islamic Hermeneutics as Cultural Critique.
Workshop on Archetypes of Liminality: Cultural Patterns of
Apostasy, Heresy, and Conversion in Monotheistic Milieus,
Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Germany.

Dec 2003 Subject to Allah and/or Science: Ambivalent Narratives in

Contemporary Muslim Ethics, annual Schmitt Lecture, Notre
Dame Center for Ethics & Culture & Reilly Center for Science,
Technology & Values, University of Notre Dame.

Oct 2003 Mediating Modern Science through Islamic Law and

Theology symposium on Science, Islam and Cultural Values
held at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

May 2003 Human Dignity in Islam, plenary speaker at the Second

International Muslim Leaders Consultation on HIV/AIDS,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 19-23 May.

April 2003 Challenges in Re-Thinking Islam Today, Sewanee College,

University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.

April 2003 Debts and Burdens of Critical Islam, Stanford University,

Department of Religion, Palo Alto, California.

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April 2003 Challenges in Re-Thinking Islam Today, University of
California at Davis, Davis, California.

April 2003 Struggling for Human Rights: Muslims and Constitutionalism

in South Africa, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Law
School, Knoxville, Tennessee.

March 2003 Re-Thinking Islam in Modernity, Robert Penn Warren

Center for the Humanities, Vanderbilt University, Nashville,
Tennessee.

March 2003 Challenges to the Formations of Contemporary Islamic

Thought, Cornell University, Department of Near Eastern
Studies, Ithaca, New York.

Nov 2003 Subjectivity and Ethics in Ghazali, the American Academy of

Religion, annual meeting, Atlanta, Georgia.

Oct 2002 Issues in Muslim Bioethics, American Society for Bioethics

and Humanities Baltimore, Maryland.

Aug 2002 The Quran in the Muslim Imagination, plenary talk

delivered at Sun Valley Writers Conference, Sun Valley,
Idaho.

July 2002 Challenges of Critical Islamic Thought, invited by the office

of the deputy prime minister of Malaysia to address the Kuala
Lumpur International Islamic Forum, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

March 2002 Rethinking Islam in Modernity, Dialogue of Civilizations,

Isfahan, Iran.

Jan 2002 Informed Consent in Islamic Ethics, Fordham University,

Conference on Informed Consent.

Nov 2001 September 11, 2001 special panel American Academy of

Religion, annual meeting, Boulder, Colorado.

March 2001 Intellectual Modernity in Islam, three seminars delivered at

the Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World
(ISIM), Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands.

Jan 2000 The Struggle for Muslim Personal Law in South Africa,
Wiegand Lecture in Pivotal Ideas in World Civilization, Duke
University, North Carolina.

Nov 2000 Dissonance of Gazes Towards the Body in Islamic Law, God,
Life & Cosmos: Theistic Perspectives Jointly conference of the
Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS)
Berkeley, USA, the International Islamic University, Islamabad

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 (IIU) and the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT)
Islamabad, Pakistan.

April 2000 Islam and Constitutionalism in South Africa, Islam and

Constitutionalism Conference, Harvard University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts.

April 2000 Reinterpreting Women in Islam, Conference on Colonizing

Women University of California Los Angeles, Law School,
Los Angeles, California.

April 2000 Revisiting Islam and Modernity, Institute for Study of Islam
in the Modern World, Leiden, Netherlands.

Feb 2000 Notion of the Other in Muslim Theology Sawyer Seminar on

Hatred: Encountering the Other, University of Chicago.

Feb 2000 Implications of Language in the Reconstruction of Islamic law

and Theology, Mini-conference on Islamic Theology, Emory
University, Atlanta, Georgia.

Nov 1998 Law as Simulacrum in Islam, American Academy of Religion,

annual meeting, Orlando, Florida.

Jan 1997 Between Civil and Savage: Muslim Identity in South Africa,
Sawyer Seminar on Religion, Law and the Construction of
Identity, at Chicago Humanities Institute at University of
Chicago, Chicago. Illinois.

Nov 1997 Islam and Modernity Re-visited, plenary address to joint

session of the American Academy of Religion & Middle East
Studies Association, annual meeting, San Francisco, California.

Oct 1997 Pains and Problems in Rethinking Islam, Stanford

University.

May 1997 Transacting the Body in the Law, Civil Status and
Biographies of God in Contemporary Africa, CODESRIA,
Gore Island, Dakar, Senegal.

Dec 1996 Islam and Postmodernism, Emory University faculty

seminar.

June 1996 Multiculturalism in South Africa, Istanbul Municipal

Council Habitat Conference, Istanbul, Turkey.

May 1996 Annual Inter-faith Lecture at Loyola University, Chicago, IL.

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Nov 1996 The Sufaha in the Quran American Academy of Religion,
annual meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Dec 1995 Legal Philosophy of al-Ghazali, Egyptian Philosophical Society,

Cairo, Egypt.

Nov 1995 Chaired a session of the proceedings of the Arab Philosophical

Society in Amman, Jordan.

Aug 1994 Muslims and the Bill of Rights in a Post-apartheid South Africa,
International Conference on Islam and Civil Society in South
Africa, at the University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria, South
Africa.

Dec 1994 Contemporary Islamic Fundamentalism, 26th Annual

Conference of the International Association of Political
Consultants, Johannesburg, South Africa.

(Delivered papers at 13 international and national conferences between 1986-1994).

Media Outreach & Teach-Ins

Contribute regularly as commentator in national and international electronic and print
media.

Participated in several teach-ins at Duke University on current affairs and topical

events.

Regularly lecture in the Program in the Humanities and Human Values at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Languages
English read, speak and write
Afrikaans read, speak and write
Arabic read, speak and write
Urdu read, speak and write
Persian read elementary-intermediate
French read
Gujerati speak fluently
Xhosa beginner

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